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Friday, April 21, 2006

The Art Of Maki-e

The Japanese have long indulged their fountain pens with the art of maki-e which is the art of applying urushi lacquer, gold, raden and other precious stone bits onto the barrel of a resin. This art is precious because it requires great handling and artistic skills by the craftsmen. Urushi lacquer itself is poisonous to touch (and was used extensively on samurai yoroi or armour in the old days).

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

The big names like Namiki, Sailor, Platinum and Nakaya have an extensive range to choose from and some can cost up to USD10k and above for these works of art. This particular piece is a very low budget one. You can see the artist's name in one of the photos.